A Hunter's Job
by Aidan047
Summary: All he needs to do is a simple job, to slaughter beasts. Now, trapped in a new world, without a goal, what can he do? The bloodlust still sings to him, it smells so sweet...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danmachi and Bloodborne**

* * *

_'Farewell, my keen hunter, fear the old blood.' The last words an old man said to him before his head was chopped off._

_Pretty disappointing, he thought, for a hunter like him to die such a simple death._

* * *

He shouldn't be here.

He expected to wake up back in Yharnam, under one of its gargantuas buildings. To continue the hunt until he died or lose himself to the bloodlust, whichever came first.

Instead, he ended up in a cave.

If it was even a cave to begin with, no regular cavern he has seen have lights everywhere.

Lifting himself from the ground, he took a look at his surroundings.

Ugh, out of all the places, he had to wake up to face a group of monsters.

However, none of them even remotely looked like the many beasts he slain countless times.

Most of them are skeletons, wielding an array of weapons, what kind of eldritch powers that managed to animate them, he did not know.

Leading them is a giant humanoid lizard holding a giant greatsword, with blue scales that seem to reflect the light shining from this cave.

He immediately drew his silver longsword, a simple weapon with a curved guard adorned only with some engravings. Fingering the grip, he felt comforted by the few objects he is familiar with.

One of the skeletons, holding a shortsword in its right hand and a shield in its left, charged forward and attempted slice his chest.

The hunter however sidestepped to the left and in one clean motion, drew his sword back and chopped the skeletons head off.

_I've become slower_, thought the hunter as he dashed forward, cleaving another skeleton from its waist to its neck.

Another skeleton tried to lob off his head with its giant greatsword, the hunter proceeded to parry the blade. Locking the greatsword in his sword's crossguard, he twisted it to the side, evading the attack completely. He immediately drew back his left hand and swung it at the skeleton, caving its skull in.

Finally, the hunter drew his sidearm, a repeating pistol, and blew the head off the remaining skeleton.

The lizardman wasn't happy about its little monster party being destroyed, it ran towards the hunter, swinging its massive sword wildly towards him, a voracious war cry emanating from its mouth.

The hunter backstepped back, easily avoiding the lizardman's swings. Grabbing the massive steel hunk of metal attached to his back, he lifted it overhead and swung it downwards, smashing the lizard, turning it into a giant bloody pile of body parts and gore.

_The waking world sure isn't what I expected._

Stowing his weapons, he picked up one of the more intact parts of the lizardman, giving it sniff before taking a bite on presumably, the arm of the beast he just killed.

_Ah well, at least the food's pretty good._

A loud cry reverberated from the distance, a monster horde is converging onto him. Beasts of all shapes and sizes, wielding an array of weapons, all unified with a single goal. To kill him.

_Beastly abominations, all of them._

Drawing his blade, the hunter pushed it into an opening in the middle of the giant slab. Making a satisfying _ca-chink_ as the two pieces combined into a giant hammer.

_A hunter's job never ends._

He charged forward, a feral grin etched upon his face.

He swung his gigantic hammer, smashing his way through hordes of monsters.

'_A hunter must hunt' A crow-like hunter said, her parting words to him as they went on their separate ways, one to hunt beasts, the other to hunt another kind of 'beast'._

As he pulverised the monsters that tried to challenge him, he made a decision.

He would continue to do what he did best in this uncharted territory, to continue the hunt until every beast has been slain by his hand.

Because that's what hunters do.

* * *

**A/N: Alright great my first (half-baked) idea for a story actually has a chapter now, please do me a favour and give me a review of how shit my writing is and what I gotta improve on, now that's said I'm probably gonna write a longer chapter next time cause this is the prologue so far.**

**And don't worry, I'm gonna flesh out my boi here soon, once i pick up a name for him XD.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danmachi and Bloodborne**

* * *

It's been days since he got stuck in this damn cave.

The monsters here never seem to stop coming. Constantly appearing from the walls of this place.

Even worse was that none of the beasts held anything he could use, all that remained in their corpses is just a crystal.

Useless for a hunter.

He already ran out of bullets and bloodvials a long time ago.

At least from the murder of these abominations he could gather a simple rule.

_Break the crystal, kill the beast._

_This is place must really be abandoned_, though the hunter as he stabbed his sword into the mouth of a gigantic serpent. Breaking the crystal inside and killing it instantly.

Plucking a mushroom from the ground, he started chewing on it as the hunter walked through what presumed to be an exit from this section of the cavern.

While most might be scared of getting poisoned from consuming anything present in the dungeon, the hunter ignores any of such worries. His adept constitution and old blood flowing through his veins prevents him from getting poisoned easily.

Even if he was, he could always inject himself with the blood present in the beasts here.

* * *

_"What's that smell? ...The sweet blood, oh, it sings to me. It's enough to make a man sick"_

_Right as the madman uttered those words, he let out a giant beastly howl. Once a proud hunter keeping fighting to keep his family safe, now a mad beast, craving for blood._

_He was granted a quick death, the ex-hunter deserved that at least._

_That was not even the end of his torment, for now the hunter had to deal with with the aftermath of the beasts death, in the form of 2 little girls._

* * *

He took a deep breath and recollected his thoughts.

_Abrasions present everywhere, shallow cut on left arm, stab wound on the back, cracked rib, twisted right knee._

_Heavily exhausted, but able to continu_e.

_Body is injured, but blood transfusion from beasts is not necessary._

_For now._

He didn't know how much longer he could keep up. While hunts lasted for days on end, there were at least breaks in between through resting in the hunters dream.

Down here however, he barely has time to get a brief respite before fighting off another monster horde.

As he entered a new zone, he noticed the walls of the place is made out of wood, with the entire place filled with gargantuas trees. Somehow having a natural ecosystem despite the obvious lack of sunlight.

Weird, but he's seen worse.

* * *

_He will never forgot the look on those... things._

_It could barely be described as a beast, those revolting heads were terrifying, he did not know how a ball of flesh on a body could survive like this._

_His eyes hurt from just looking at them, he barely had enough insight to resist the urge to rip out his eyes._

_That wasn't even the worst thing the research hall threw at him._

* * *

Suddenly, a giant growling sound reverberated from the forest, snapping him out of his thoughts, he instantly drew his blade, preparing for the worst to happen.

A giant mushroom-like monster immediately burst from the forest, the mushroom monster immediately started swinging from side to side, causing its poisonous spores in the inside of the cap of the mushroom to spread through the air, turning the surroundings to a light purple colour.

Shrugging off its pathetic attempts to poison him, the hunter pulled out a flamesprayer from inside his hunter garb. He proceeded to cut his his left palm with his sword, letting the blood from the wound drip into a small hole where a quicksilver bullet should have been inserted instead.

The weapon immediately roared to life, shooting flames from its bell-like piece. It instantly incinerated the mushroom, its dying screams echoing through the cavern.

_So they burn just like the beasts in Yharnam, good._

As he loaded the flamesprayer with more of his blood, he aimed it at one of the trees, scorching it completely, causing the trees surrounding it to catch on fire as well.

In a few moments, the forest was ablaze.

He heard the terrified screams of more monsters nearby.

Loading his flamesprayer once again, he walked towards the desperate cries, screaming for their suffering to end.

He'll gladly provide the end of course.

_Tonight, the beast will learn who's truly the predator here._

The only thing heard in the Large Tree Labryinth that day was the crackling of fire.

* * *

It was a normal day in Orario.

Or as normal as it could ever be.

Rose Fanett, a recently employed guild staff, is already overwhelmed with the work given to her.

_It's only been a week and there's already a multitude of problems I need to settle!_

So far, there has been reports of a sharp decrease of monsters present in the middle to lower floors of the dungeon. A party is needed to investigate who, or what is causing this.

A large fire has also been burning the tress from floor 19 to 24, while its common for adventurers to keep the forest in a manageable state. This fire has been steadily burning out the entire forest, forcing the plant monsters there to move upwards to the upper floors. Affecting most of the lower level adventurers.

Such a threat posed to the safety of Orario cannot go unchecked of course.

"So, you manage to find a familia to settle this problem yet?" The booming voice of her boss, Royman Mardeel awoke her from her musing.

"Not yet sir," Rose hastily replied, "none of the current mid-tier adventurers are available to help."

"Hmmm..." Royman pondered for a moment, before replying, "send this two quests to the Astraea familia, they should be getting ready to investigate a suspected Evilus basecamp in Rivira, let them handle this."

"Yes sir!" Rose saluted, pocketing the papers as she prepared to take a quick trip to the Astraea familia's household.

"Next time," Royman chastised, "be aware of each familia's plans, you'll be able to find opportunities for them to do our quests, now get outta you waste more of my time!"

Little did she know that sending this one simple message would bring under her tutelage one of the most interesting adventurer's in her life.

* * *

**A/N: Alright great second chapter out, sorry if its not long enough i tried to make it as long as possible, unfortunately my horrible skills in adding flavour to stories failed me badly.**

**Thanks for your reviews btw, it helps in telling me what i need to work on (specially you caffine :) ), I'll be trying to improve my writing as this story goes by, so yeah your critisim helps alot, as always do me a favour and tell me how shit my writing is, and also I'll probably post another chapter in another couple of days.**

**Bye :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danmachi and Bloodborne**

* * *

_He remembers the exileration of slaughtering a worthy opponent._

_That blood-starved beast, it was like facing death itself, faster, stronger, and tougher than him._

_It was not however, smarter than him._

_Those bottles of blood he collected from dead beasts proved useful._

_The hunt that night, it was as if he was stuck paralysed together with the beast._

_It was extremely satisfying, half-dead and weaponless, shoving his hand into the creature, and ripping its heart out._

_He will never forget the smell of its thoroughly roasted flesh, and the taste of it._

* * *

He was barely alive when he made it to the next floor.

Burning the entire forest was completely unnecessary, but it felt good.

As he injected himself with blood extracted from some kind of bear-like monster, he recollected his thoughts.

_Entire body is damaged and bruised, cut on left arm is bleeding slightly, stab wound on back is infected._

_Ribs are heavily damaged, breathing is now painful._

_Deep cut on the head, bleeding, blood affecting vision._

_Blood from beasts only keep me from bleeding out, does not heal wounds._

_Heavily malnourished and thirsty, body is practically running on fumes. Rest and medical care is heavily required._

_In a few more days I'll die without help._

While most of the time death would only delay the inevitable, this time his not coming back if he died.

For the first time in ages, he is actually terrified of that prospect.

Limping through the supposed exit of the current floor, he was shocked.

_This place looks like something from a goddamn fantasy novel._

He felt like he was in a paradise, the ceiling of the cavern is filled with brilliant shining crystals. The mix of white and blue makes it look like the place is covered in sunlight.

The floor was lush with life, in between dozens of trees he could see large blue crystals implanted into the ground, and unlike the previous few floors, there were no monsters ready to chase him, allowing the hunter to get a brief respite from the dangers of this gigantic cavern.

The best part about this place is that there seems to be a small bit of civilization in the area. For in the distance, the hunter could see a town, seemingly made completely of wood. _Most likely from the trees here, _he mused.

_It's about damn time I find a town, maybe I can finally get some answers about what I'm doing here._

For the first time in days, a smile graced his lips as he limped towards the closest river, dunking his head into the water as he gulped mouthful after mouthful.

After he satisfied his parched body, he took a good look at his reflection from the river.

_Maybe being covered in blood might scare off the locals, better wash it off._

Grumbling about having to conform to standard social norms, the hunter removed the cape that was wrapped around him, dipping it in the river and washing off all the blood, before using it as a towel to clean the rest of his attire.

Maybe it was that the injuries he suffered had dulled his senses greatly, or that he was concentrating on cleaning his hunters garb completely, or maybe even the trepidation in meeting other people for once after days of hunting.

Whatever it was, all those distractions served to be a massive problem, for the hunter did not notice a group approaching him until they were emerging behind the massive trees surrounding him and the river.

"Well look what we have here..." their ringleader, a gigantic hooded man said, a greedily glint on his eye, "An injured adventurer, here alone, how convenient."

"I'm not an adventurer, I'm a hunter." The hunter replied, dropping the cape and placing one hand on the hilt of his sword.

This doesn't feel right, no regular person would dare attack a hunter, they were too respected and feared for the average person to dare challenge.

To be fair, it's six against one, and the group seems to be pretty confident in their abilities, judging by how they handled their weapons as if they had been through many battles.

In his weakened state, it might possible for him slip up, allowing them to capitalize on his mistakes.

"Hunter, adventurer, doesn't matter," the leader shrugged, "just hand over everything you have, and we'll let you go." He smiled, there's was nothing friendly in it.

The hunter said nothing, his grip on the longsword tightened.

The tension continued for a little while longer, before it was broken by the hooded man.

"Look," the man sighed, pulling back his hood, "you aren't gonna walk away from this alive if you're going to try to fight, I'm a level 3 and the rest here are level 2's, it's a death wish to challenge us, also..." he rambled on.

The hunter however wasn't listening, for the moment the man removed his hood his eyes trained onto the most grotesque body part imaginable.

His ears.

Or more accurately his boar ears.

_A beast._

_All beasts must be slaughtered._

He snapped, losing the few bits of self control he had left.

In a split second, he drew his arm back and hurled the sword straight towards the man- no, _beast_.

It easily avoided the sword.

What it didn't avoid was his charge.

Slamming into the monster and knocking in to the ground, the hunter pulled out the hunter's axe stowed on his belt and plunged in into its chest.

Break.

Maim.

_Kill._

Ripping the axe from his chest, he used all his might to cleave his right arm, tearing the tendons and snapping the bone with ease.

_Kill._

He chopped off the beasts other hand, savoring it's pathetic cries for mercy.

_Kill._

He cleaved the chest of the monster, spilling its guts across the grass, all while with a sadistic smile plastered across his face.

_Kill._

Finally, having had his fill of blood, in an act of mercy, he chopped the beasts head off.

_Eat._

Grabbing the severed arm of the creature, he took a large bite of flesh, enjoying the toughness and the chewiness of it.

Once his hunger subsided, he finally took note of his surroundings, realizing that the rest of the group already ran away.

_Ah well, at least they won't bother me anymore._

He frowned, looking at the half-eaten corpse in front of him.

_Better burn the body, can't have any locals finding this._

Pulling out his flamesprayer, he lit the body up, instantly incinerating it, only leaving a pile of ashes left.

Grabbing the rest of his equipment, he started making his way towards the town, not taking anymore chances to get ambushed again.

Taking in the surroundings, he pondered about what he just did.

_Can't lose myself to the bloodlust again, the hunt still hasn't ended yet._

_I still have much beasts left to kill._

* * *

_He heavily regrets eating a beast blood pellet._

_They are supposed to be banned for a reason._

_With just one pellet, a large fog clouded his mind, a beastly urge overtook him, to hunt, to kill._

_He only regained his senses much later, when he was lying under a mountain full of corpses, bathing in the blood of the beasts._

* * *

Sometime has passed, in the distance he could see another group walking along the same trail as him, this time in even more absurd equipment than the previous one.

One is a red haired female, clad completely in armor, with a rapier at her side.

The other is a person, face hidden by a mask and a green flower shaped cloak, however obviously female judging by her body shape, equipped with some kind of wooden sword.

The final person is a black haired woman as well, wearing a robe and has two swords, katanas most likely from the shape of those curved swords.

_For gods sake, is everyone in this land insane? they're all wearing high heels! One isn't even wearing proper pants!_

_What kind of messed up world am I in, full of so-called adventures with equipment practical enough to kill rats!_

Taking a deep breath, he tried to walk pass them, praying desperately that none of them would bother him about the blood covering his entire body.

Of course nothing would ever work in his favor.

"Halt."

He kept walking, perhaps maybe ignoring them they'll leave.

"Halt now, final warning."

He kept walking.

Instinctively, he twisted his entire body, cleanly avoiding the knife thrown at him.

Those instincts created and honed in Yharnam didn't fail him.

He instantly drew his blade, turning around and blocking the cut of that wooden sword one of the adventurers were wielding.

Before he could retaliate however, the cloaked adventurer leaped back towards the rest of her team, all of them had their weapons drawn.

_...I might underestimated them greatly._

"I recognize the smell of that blood, it's from a Boaz, explain." the hooded female said.

He recognised that cold tone of voice, a tone for people that will have no compromise, and will endlessly pursue their goal.

Unfortunately for the hunter, he just so happened to be the target.

He slowly reached for his hunters axe, preparing himself for another battle.

"Ugh, I told you too be more polite Lyon." The red haired adventurer sighed, stowing her rapier. "If you keep doing that, everyone we meet is just gonna run or fight!"

"In my defense, he was pretty shifty." The person, now known as Lyon, retorted, "since you say your so good at talking, I'll let you handle this."

Clearing her throat, the red haired adventurer put on the brightest smile she could muster and said, "Sorry about that, my familia can be a bit paranoid sometimes." Shooting a glare at Lyon, she continued, "Anyway, my name is Alise Lovell, level 4 and captain of the Astraea familia. What about you?"

The hunter could only come with one response.

"...What?"

* * *

**A/N: Alright its out, as always review on how shit I am and stuff. (special thanks to caffine again for giving me a lot better ideas to write, really apprecate it)**

**as always i apologise for not giving a longer chapter, im still trying (getting longer though)**

**Also if anyone has advice on how to write dialogue I would really appreicate it, I'm not satisfied with how im currently writing it atm (also a lot of stuff but this is the most important rn)**

**now in the next chapter (couple of days again) i will finally give hunter boi a name, so um throw in some ideas, ill consider it :)**

**Alright if you excuse me im gonna sleep now.**

**Bye :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danmachi and Bloodborne**

* * *

"I'm asking for your name, what is it?"

"...a name?"

"Duh! Everyone has a name, what's yours?"

_No one has ask me for my name since entering Yharnam._

_It's been so long since I used one._

* * *

"_Hello, um, sir, my name is-"_

"_Ah-hah, you must be the new hunter. Welcome to the Hunter's Dream. This will be your home, for now." The old man started._

"_Um, thank you, I'm-"_

"_I am... Gehrman," he continued, oblivious to the stumbling young man. "friend to you hunters. You're sure to be in a fine haze about now, but don't think too hard about all of this."_

_Thrusting an axe into his grasp, Gherman said, "Just go out and kill a few beasts. It's for your own good. You know, it's just what hunters do! You'll get used to it..."_

_Before he could speak another word, he was thrown back into the waking world, to face off against the terrifying abomination that killed him._

* * *

Looking at Alise's expectant gaze, the hunter took a took a deep breath.

_Alright, it's time I got a proper name anyway._

"...Jack."

"Alright nice to meet you Jack! Now let me introduce you to the rest," She continued, "The shady mysterious one is Ryuu, but we just call her Lyon, and the other wayyyyy more friendly one here is Gojouno." Alise said, pointing at the robed person

"Alise, we're getting sidetracked." Gojouno said, shooting a glance at her.

"Right..." Alise muttered, shaking her head a couple of times before reverting back to her usual bubbly mood, "Anyway Jack, as part of the Astraea familia, we are well within the rights to investigate any possible threats to Orario, so my first question is... why do you have Boaz blood splattered all over yourself?"

_What's so special about this familia? What even is a familia anyway?_

_She also mentioned levels, is that some kind authority level? Does it give power over those with a lower level?_

_Too many questions, too little answers._

Deciding not to aggravate their suspicions even further, Jack decided to answer in what he thought was the correct answer.

_This Boaz thing must probably be the boar-eared beast I slaughtered a little while ago._

"He tried to kill me, so I killed him first." Jack stated.

"Wow... isn't that a bit too... harsh of a punishment?" Alise replied, face contorted in confusion

"Of course not, all beasts must be slain." Jack stated nonchalantly, his expression concealed by his mask.

"Well, alright then, if you say so..." she frowned, a wave of confusion swirling in her mind. "I can't really fault you for that, you were just defending yourself."

An awkward silence descended upon the group, until Alise cleared her throat and continued.

"Alright next question, have you come across any sort of semi-concealed house in this place, one that looks like a tree and has vines around it?"

Jack rummaged through his brain, trying to recall any recent memories of such a place.

_Now when I think about it, there was a place that sounds like that, though I did destroy the entire building._

* * *

_While walking towards Rivira, he noticed the same group that tried to rob him, albeit without their pathetic beast leader._

_On spotting the_ hunter,_ the group instantly tried to hide, running into a gigantic tree._

_Upon the taking a closer look, Jack saw that this tree happened to have a door on it, seemingly blending in with the natural foliage._

_Unfortunately, it's locked but it looks to lead towards somewhere deeper._

_Well, I did say to have no witnesses._

_Pulling out his flamesprayer, he instantly burned down the entire tree, revealing a passage towards the unknown._

_He could however, see that there's some kind of light source used in the passage, seemingly lighting up the walls without using any kind of electricity whatsoever._

_He can smell their scents clouding the entire tunnel, along with a very delicious smell he easily recognized._

_Fear._

_He made sure to turn every single one of those pathetic beast followers to ashes._

* * *

"I burned it down."

"...WHAT?"

"You heard me, I destroyed he entire building."

"...WHY?"

"They were from the same group that attacked me, so I killed them."

Facepalming, Alise took in a deep breath.

_This is probably the craziest person I had to interrogate!_

"Alright_," _Alise forced a smile upon her face again. "Did you also happen to have a hand in burning the middle floor forests down?"

"You mean the ones with wood on the walls and beasts?" Jack replied, a hint of confusion in his.

"Well duh."

"Then yes, I was the one that purged the entire forests in flames."

"..." Alise and her team just stood there, flabbergasted

"Anything else? I need to tend to my wounds soon." Jack said, noticing the obvious shock written on their faces.

"Your the one that also killed all the monsters in the lower floors right?"

"Mhm" He nodded.

Alise shared a look with the rest of her team, the look in their faces said it all.

_We can't let him run free._

"You did say you had to tend to your wounds, yes?" Alise said, a bit too sweetly than she intended.

"Well yes-" the hunter started but was cut off as she grabbed his shoulders and started pushing him in the direction where Rivira is.

"Well we'll bring you there! Rivira sells tons of healing potions!"

Deciding that following her requests will fulfill his goal easier, he gently pushed Alise's hands off him, trailing behind her team, walking in his usual deathly quiet pace. The only thing the Level 4's could hear is the barely noticeable crunching of soil beneath his boots.

As her party led the way, Alise gave a final look at Gojouno, whom was raising an eyebrow towards her, the look on her face saying all that she needed to say.

_We'll talk about this later._

* * *

**A/N: Alright sorry im late, i fell sick for a couple of days :(**

**As always thanks for Reviews and tell me how shit my writing is**

**Yes Its even shorter than the previous one im sorry, my sick body couldnt come up with more :(**

**Anyway before i rest im gonna answer a few questions**

**Firstly, I wanted to make him notice Ryuu's ears and immediately start planning ways to murder and stuff like that (honestly wanted him to go batshit insane again and try to kill them) But honestly her ears are hidden by her cloak so ima just let him not notice it (for now at least)**

**Yes his also a lot weaker than being in Yharnam, tbh if i made him as powerful he would curbstomp the entire dungeon and all the gods in the world, so i decided to make him less powerful (he's gonna get back his power eventually though, so dw)**

**Yeah this story is seta few years before the main story, in order for me to establish his character being in Orario and stuff.**

**Anyway, very soon im gonna throw him into the main world soon, so he's gonna finally interact with gods and other notable characters**

**Alright all i have to say tonight, now ima sleep now**

**Night**

**Note after i woke up: btw if you have any ideas on how you want this story to go, please tell me, cause i still dont really have a full idea on what hes gonna do in Orario and stuff**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own Danmachi and Bloodborne**

* * *

He was no fool.

He could see the uncertainty in their gazes, the way they keep fiddling with their weapons.

He could smell it, the fear emanating from all of them.

That hooded one, Ryuu, he could tell she was prepared for him to try to run, from the way she walked, always a respectable distance away from him, but close enough to leap into action should he make a break for it.

He could also see the concealed throwing knife in Gojouno's sleeve, the way she angled her hands for it to immediately slide down her grasp should things go... awry.

Even the way Alise spoke was too good to be true.

_They treat me like some kind of idiot_, a painful cough interrupted his thoughts, _as if I have no idea what they're trying to do._

Trying to find an excuse to knock me out cold.

He won't let his guard down, not again.

* * *

_He always kept apologising to Isofleka._

_It really wasn't his fault the chapel was so much closer for the survivors to hide in._

_He always tried bringing gifts, little trinkets to make the night easier for her._

_She always kept refusing them._

_Until one day, she took them._

_She became a lot more... eccentric, always demanding for him to bring people into her clinic._

_He eventually entered the clinic, and found out what truly happened._

_He made sure to burn her body, and the child she held within her._

* * *

By the time they reached Rivira, Jack was barely breathing.

_We took too long, I can feel my senses fading._

The toll of fighting and killing for days finally caught up to him.

_Body is weakening... infection from back wound must have finally caught up._

_Painful, but I've, _his thoughts were interrupted by a cough of blood, _been through worse._

_I'll be fine._

"Alright Jack, shops are over there." Alise pointed towards a row of wooden houses in the distance, "I'll be having a little... talk with my friends, so I'll see you at the tavern later!"

Before he could say another world, She grabbed onto her teammates and bolted towards a large wooden house, presumably the tavern judging by the noises coming from it.

_Alright, time to find some blood vials._

Walking towards one of the shops, he noticed that it is manned by an extremely tiny human, with boyish features that contradicted the tired look in his eyes.

_Gherman also has the same look._

"Whaddayh want?" He grunted, his eyes not leaving the axe he was cleaning.

_Well, he seems normal, he's probably just short._

"I need some blood vials." Jack stated, his eyes analysing the man's wares.

_Couple of swords, an axe, a bag made of cloth, some bottles of-_

"Blood vials huh? Well I can tell you no one has those here," He chuckled, "No one has received mermaid blood in a while, since some maniac ripped the entire lower levels to shreds."

"Well do you have any other types of blood that can heal wounds?" Jack said, feeling slightly disappointed.

"Y'know, if you wanted to heal your injuries, you could just use a regular health potion, don't need that fancy shmansy blood." The pallum replied, pointing at a small vial of red liquid of his table.

"I'll take it then." Jack said, "how much is it in blood echos?"

"Blood... echos?" The trader stared as if he was crazy, "no one uses blood here as currency, just use valis my friend." He pulled out a tiny coin with the letter 'V' imprinted on it.

_I've never seen this coin in my life._

"I don't have this valis... anything else I could offer?" Jack said, subtly reaching for a throwing knife in his back pocket.

_I might have to kill him for this drink._

"Hmmm..." The pallum frowned, deep in thought, he if he did notice the movement, he didn't show it. "Well, if you have some monster crystals, I would be willing to trade some for this potion."

_So that's what the crystals were for._

"I do have one." Jack said, pulling out a blood red crystal from his hunters garb.

* * *

_He remembers slaughtering some kind of worm-plant hybrid beast._

_It put up a decent fight, but it was still no match for him._

_Instead of having a regular white crystal like most monsters however, it's heart was blood red._

_It reminded him a bit of Yharnam, and the non-stop slaughter going on in the streets._

_He kept it, maybe it could be absorbed for power._

* * *

"I've never seen that kind of crystal before, where did you get it?" The pallum said, eyeing the crystal suspiciously.

"From a beast." The hunter shrugged, "it doesn't really matter, but do you accept this crystal or not?"

The pallum took one final look at the crystal and sighed, "Deal, but only this time."

Accepting the potion from him, he instantly pulled of the cork and downed the potion in one gulp. Letting the cool minty taste envelop his mouth.

_It's not blood... but it not bad._

Instantly, he could feel his wounds healing, fixing themselves without any complications.

The pain from them subsided as well.

Miraculously, the infection he has disappeared as well, most likely healed by the liquid.

_This will be a good replacement for blood vials. Although it doesn't really help with exhaustion._

"Hey, my crystal." The pallum said, snapping Jack out of his thoughts, his right hand reached towards him, prompting him to give the crystal.

"Thank you." The hunter finally said as he placed the crystal in the man's hand before walking towards the tavern.

_Health is stable, now I just need to settle my hunger and exhaustion._

Now that his wounds are healed, he could feel the muscles that ached, originally concealed by the pain he felt.

Maybe now he could try to sneak away, escape before they noticed what happened.

_Heh, as if they would let me leave anyway._

_I think staying here is better._

_Maybe I can finally get some answers on where the hell am I._

* * *

Of course they wouldn't let him out of their sights so easily.

They were hiding in one of Rviria's cramped alleyways, with enough space so they could hide inside it.

This place allowed a perfect view of the marketplace, inconspicuous enough for no one to notice them.

Unless they were high enough level, of course.

Gojouno took a seat on the floor while Ryuu leaned on the wall, they both turned to turned to face Alise.

"Alright Alise, spill it." Ryuu said, her eyes never leading the man in black leathers.

Clearing her throat, Alise started, "Alright, so what we know of this person, Jack, is that he's the cause of the rapid decline of monsters in the lower levels and the burning of the forests from floor 19-24."

"That settles it, he's insane," Ryuu interjected. "We can't just let such a powerful person go free, especially with the fact that he has such a violet personality, we should just eliminate him here and now."

"Hold on Lyon," Gojouno said, shooting a glare at her. "We don't know wether he's such a terrible person or not, and besides, him soloing the lower levels makes him at least level 5, or 6. It wouldn't be an easy fight to kill him."

"Well we can just slip him a sleep potion and finish him while he's asleep, it'll be quick and painless."

"No we can't," Alise finally joined in, a sense of finality in her tone. "We aren't murderers, killing someone will make us no better than Evilus."

"Well if we don't, then what are we supposed to do with him." Ryuu pointed towards Jack. "I don't think letting him go is a good idea, and we can't kill him, so what are the options?"

"We could hand him over to the guild." Gojouno answered, "although the familia he's from might not really appreciate him getting locked up."

"Actually," Alise interjected, "we don't even know what familia he's from."

"Wasn't that your job to ask?" Ryuu said dryly.

_Oh right._

"Well um, I was stressed ok?!" A hint of a blush appeared of Alise's cheeks as she tried to find an excuse. "It's hard to remember when facing a scary looking probably evil person!"

"More like distracted by his handsome looks, first time I've seen you that flustered when dealing with someone." Gojouno teased.

"Urrggggh." She facepalmed, "you guys are the worst, none of us even saw his face! We can't tell how he looks like!"

"I saw you glance at his haunches, probably imagining some... _indecent_ thoughts." She winked, giggling slightly.

Alise's face was starting to turn a deeper shade of red, desperately trying to find another excuse.

_It's not my fault he just looks so... visually appealing!_

"Anyway," Ryuu interrupted, "We are supposed to meet him later in the tavern, we can ask him there later."

"You mean now, he's approaching the tavern as we speak." Gojouno replied.

"Alright girls," Alise chimed in, turning serious once again, "it's time to get some answers.

* * *

As he entered the tavern, the first thing he noticed is there is a noticeable amount of things crawling through this place.

So many of those pathetic creatures, pointed ears, tails, _everything_.

_Beasts._

_Kill._

Without a second thought, he reached for his sword...

And a cough snapped him out of his thoughts.

He turned to the sound and saw a large burly man behind a counter.

He just shook his head, and pointed towards the door.

The message was clear.

_Take your 'business' outside._

The hunter nodded, he just needed to control his emotions for now.

_I'll handle the beasts later_, he promised to himself.

"Hey Jack! Over here!"

He saw Alise and friends seated on a small round table, an empty seat left there as well.

Taking a seat, he quickly appraised them.

Gojouno still seemed a bit wary of him, still clutching on the weapon in her sleeve, as always.

Ryuu looked the same, constantly on edge, her mask and hood is still concealing her face, and expressions, the only thing he could see is her blonde her and blue eyes.

Finally, Alise looks a little different, her face was slightly redder than usual, and her movements a bit more hectic.

_...weird, but nothing to worry about._

"Hey," Alise said again, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Could you remove your mask? It's kinda rude to wear this in a tavern."

"No." He said, "even she isn't removing it." He gestured towards Ryuu.

"Ryuu, remove your mask." She ordered instantly.

"But-"

"No buts, _now_."

"Fine." She sighed, removing the mask and pulling her hood back, revealing her-

_Beast._

Pointed ears.

_How was I so blind?! A beast right in front of me and I didn't-_

"Hey, it's your turn now." Alise said, nudging Jack slightly.

Suppressing his beastly urge to grab Ryuu ears and rip them from her head before smashing it into a pulp, he removed his tri-coned hat and place it on the table before pulling down his mask...

"Wow... you looked a lot younger than expected."

Revealing his face, a surprisingly young man with enough scars that put the most veteran adventurers to shame.

"May I ask where do you get all those scars from?" Gojouno asked, a pointed look at a rather long one from his right eye all the way to his lower left jaw.

"Beasts." He said stiffly, stealing a glance at Ryuu's ears.

_I'll end you once I get the chance._

"Alright we're getting off track here." Alise said, clearing her throat she continued, "So, Jack, whose familia are you from?"

"I actually have a question I would I like to answer myself, what's a familia?" He retorted.

She blinked, certainly not expecting the reply.

_What?! How insane are you?! How do you not know what a familia is?!_

"You... don't know what's a familia? Then how did you end up all the way down in the lower levels?!"

"An unlucky awakening."

"...can you elaborate?"

"No." And that was the end of it.

"Alright, I'm just gonna make the explanation simple." Alise sighed, preparing herself for a mini lecture.

"So you see, gods from heaven came down to our world and gave us powers which allowed us to get stronger than normal humans, this letting us fight more monsters in this place, the dungeon, and get even stronger, such groups formed by a bunch of people following one god is a familia, and a familia is basically like a family."

She pointed towards her 2 teammates and smiled, "we look out and care for one another, we fight together, we laugh together, we cry together, that's what a familia is, I wouldn't trade these 2 for anyone in the world!" Instantly she pulled them into a group hug.

"Alise... your being sentimental again..." Gojouno sighed, pushing herself away from the hug that Ryuu unfortunately got trapped in.

"You mentioned gods right? What are they like?" Jack said sharply, his mind going haywire.

If there are more old ones here, I swear I will every single one of th-

"Yeah." Alise shrugged, still trapping a struggling Ryuu in her iron grip. "Gods are around, most are nice, some are weird and a few are a bit evil."

"And what? Do they kill mortals? So they destroy cities? Create massive disasters?"

He shuddered at thought.

* * *

_He barely remembers fighting... something._

_The __Ō̷̢̼̤̦̙̹̤͙͙̬̟̗͎͚͑̊͆͘r̷̡̳̖̹̻̱͍̘̤̄̄̿̋̏̍̂͐͗̿͗͌̈̀͌̑͆͛̐̑̑͊̾͗̕̚̚͘͜p̴̨̙͉̠̱͖͚̳̦̑̈́̇̎̓̏̈́̔̐́͝͝͝h̸̡̨̨̦͔̭̥͎͓͖͓͈̣̪͕̥̟̾ͅa̵̧̼̫͈̦̗͕̮̦̟͙̠̳̭͔͉̰̹̜͚̹̤̎̽̊͋̈́̀̊̑̾̈́̅̈́͂͐̋̑͋̌͌͐̈́̆̊̽͒̊̚͜͝ͅͅň̵̗̹̯̙͕̤̱̣̰̼̺̣͇̙̀̽̌__ he fought came out of a dead great one._

_It showed him things he shouldn't see._

_It terrified him, more than any other beast._

* * *

"No they don't," Alise said, "they can't anyway, they made a deal that they can't use their powers if they wanna be in our world."

"So... they don't kill people?" He found that amazingly hard to belief.

"I mean, sometimes the evil gods order their familia to evil stuff, other than that they don't do much else."

_Great, on top of beasts I have old ones to hunt._

_How fun._

"So where are these evil gods? They must be killed before they do more damage." He asked.

"Well... barely anyone manages to find them, and by the time we discover their location they just disappear, like _poof_." She snapped her fingers to emphasize the point.

"Oh." A hint of disappointment in his tone.

_I was a fool to think it would be that easy._

"Well don't worry so much!" She grinned, "my familia are doing all we can to stop them, we are the protectors of Orario after all!" Alise puffed out her chest in pride, somehow able to despite Ryuu desperately trying to escape her clutches.

_Huh._

A group of people trying to destroy old ones.

Three barely competent so-called adventurers and worse trying to stop creators of the universe.

_How idiotic, none could even scratch a single great creator._

Somehow, terrible idea formed in his head.

Something so stupid he could not even imagine that he thought of it.

He could join them, an experienced beast slayer would bolster their ranks heavily.

_No, I can't, never again._

He would never be want to be under the clutches of a great one again.

He would never want to work with beasts, those stupid ears and tails would always harbor a great hatred in his heart. He would sooner tear his own heart out than work with them.

But it order to start the battle, he needs a stepping stone.

And they are it.

He hates it, he wouldn't want to do this at all.

But he must.

To save humanity, to let others live another day in peace, to look forward to the future.

And in order to do that, he must be the wall that holds the darkness back.

_Because that's what hunters do._

"Hey Alise, you said your the Astraea familia captain right?" Jack said unexpectedly.

"...Yeah?"

"I would like to join your familia."

* * *

**A/N: Alright done**

**2.5k words words boi, so much more good stuff to read now, have fun**

**as always tell me how shit i am at writing and stuff, and also tell me how the plot is going (like it or not? tell me anyway)**

**thanks for reviews and ill see you in another couple of days**

**Night**

**befire i forget, no the part about his looks is a joke, im most likely not gonna throw him in any romatic relationships at all, cause he honestly wouldnt care about em anyway.**


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